One of the best ways to take your fitness outdoors is by signing up for a race. Whether that’s an obstacle course race, 5k, or a half/full marathon, doing your cardio outdoors is an amazing feeling.

If you took the leap and signed up for a race, then rest assured we have you covered with over 100 motivational quotes for runners on race day.

No matter how many races you finish or how many miles you log, there are always going to be race day jitters. Starting your morning with a bit of motivation can help you have a good day during your big race.

If it’s your first time, focus on the finish line. You don’t need to worry about getting first place. You’ve put in the hard work. You’ve been training for this moment for a long time. You don’t need to be the best runner in the world. You just need to finish.

Enjoy the alone time with your thoughts. Relish in the feeling of leaving your comfort zone.

Check out the Outdoor Muscle YouTube channel for more content for runners!

Motivational Quotes for Runners on Race Day

“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” – John Bingham

“Around the halfway point, when the pace required more effort, the internal cheerleader stepped in—the encouraging voice that pushed me in every race. Good job, work this hill. Just focus on the mile you’re in. Drive your arms. Drive. Drive!” – Deena Kastor

“Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you’re not demanding more from yourself – expanding and learning as you go – you’re choosing a numb existence. You’re denying yourself an extraordinary trip.” – Dean Karnazes

“I often hear someone say I’m not a real runner. We are all runners; some just run faster than others. I never met a fake runner.”-  Bart Yasso

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” – Haruki Murakami

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” – Steve Prefontaine

“To win without risk is to triumph without glory.” Pierre Cornielle

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?” – Lance Armstrong

“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.”-  Kathrine Switzer

“One way the marathon is different from other races is that its lessons often have parallels in the rest of life. The patience needed to master the marathon is a transferable skill. Taking the long view, putting in the unglamorous daily work, finding joy in the process, saving something for the inevitable challenges—these traits have helped me be a better husband, father, brother, and friend.” – Meb Keflezighi

“In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, ‘I have finished.’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that.” – Fred Lebow

“The athlete must always keep in mind this concept of change and progression. He must never accept his limitations as being permanent because they are not.” – Emil Zatopek

“Running is a head game. When you’re running, there are two options: let your mind wander or focus. To compete, you must focus.” – Kara Goucher

“He runs because he has to. Because in being a runner, in moving through pain and fatigue and suffering, in imposing stress upon stress, in eliminating all but the necessities of life, he is fulfilling himself and becoming the person he is.” – George Sheehan

“I run because I am an animal. I run because it is part of my genetic wiring. I run because millions of years of evolution have left me programmed to run. And, finally, I run because there’s no better way to see the sun rise and set.” – Amby Burfoot

“Never stop fighting, you are here for a reason and your purpose is bigger than you can imagine. Keep going.” – Allyson Felix

“There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul.” – Kristin Armstrong

“I can only take one step at a time, whether I am running or living. Today is a good day. This is my life and it’s happening now.”- Mina Samuels

“Training need not be an all-or-nothing battle, involving punishing track practice, grueling calisthenics, and wrenching interval sessions every afternoon. It could be a fun and easy cruise through the gorgeous New England countryside. It could be an act of freedom by which I could step outside myself and my racing mind. A long run in nature could even be a way to connect my physical body with the unseen spirit of the universe.” – Bill Rodgers

“Running is alone time that lets my brain unspool the tangles that build up over days.” – Rob Haneisen

“Running has given me the courage to start, the determination to keep trying, and the childlike spirit to have fun along the way. Run often and run long, but never outrun your joy of running.” – Julie Isphording

“Good things come slow, especially in distance running.” Bill Dellinger

“Even when you have gone as far as you can, and everything hurts, and you are staring at the specter of self-doubt, you can find a bit more strength deep inside you, if you look closely enough.”- Hal Higdon

“Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.” – Marilyn Von Savant

“Until you face your fears, you don’t move to the other side, where you find the power.” – Mark Allen

“In the hardest moments of a long race, the athlete’s entire conscious experience of reality boils down to a desire to continue pitted against a desire to quit. Nothing else remains. The athlete is no longer a student or a teacher or a salesman. He is no longer a son or a father or a husband. He has no social roles or human connections whatsoever. He is utterly alone. He no longer has any possessions. There is no yesterday and no tomorrow, only now. The agony of extreme endurance fatigue crowds out every thought and feeling except one: the goal of reaching the finish line.”- Matt Fitzgerald

“Competing is exciting and winning is exhilarating, but the true prize will always be the self-knowledge and understanding that you have gained along the way.” – Sebastian Coe

“It won’t always go your way, so you can’t get trapped in this idea that just because you’ve imagined a possibility for yourself that you somehow deserve it. Your entitled mind is dead weight. Cut it loose. Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim on what you are willing to earn!” – David Goggins

“Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance and beautiful silence.” – David Goggins

“When you think that you are done, you’re only 40% into what your body’s capable of doing. That’s just the limits that we put on ourselves.”- David Goggins

“When I feel tired, I just think about how great I will feel once I finally reach my goal.”- Michael Phelps

“I’m not the strongest. I’m not the fastest. But I’m really good at suffering.” – Amelia Boone

“You already know what the right thing to do is. You just gotta do it.”  – Jocko Willink

“Don’t just think. Don’t just talk. Don’t just dream. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you actually do. So: DO.”  – Jocko Willink

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – Christopher McDougall

“The reason we race isn’t so much to beat each other, but to be with each other.” – Christopher McDougall

“Fast running isn’t forced. You have to relax and let the run come out of you.” – Desiree Linden

“There’s not one body type that equates to success. Accept the body you have and be the best you can be with it.” – Mary Cullen

“You don’t have to be fast. But you’d better be fearless.” – Christopher McDougall

“There is magic in misery. Just ask any runner.” – Dean Karnazes

“Every single one of us possesses the strength to attempt something he isn’t sure he can accomplish. It can be running a mile, or a 10K race, or 100 miles. It can be changing a career, losing 5 pounds, or telling someone you love her (or him).”-  Scott Jurek

“Run for 20 minutes and you’ll feel better. Run another 20 and you might tire. Add on 3 hours and you’ll hurt, but keep going and you’ll see—and hear and smell and taste—the world with a vividness that will make your former life pale.”- Scott Jurek

“And at the end of the day, there is nothing but the journey. Because the destination is pure illusion.”- Rich Roll

“The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.” – George Sheehan

“The only thing I knew with clarity was that a voice deep in my heart continued to chant, keep going. You’re on the right track.”-  Rich Roll

“I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.” – Jesse Owens

“Before the first step, before the first muscle twitches, before the first neuron fires, there comes a choice: stand still or move. You choose the right option. Then you repeat that choice one hundred thousand times. You don’t run thirty miles, you run a single step many times over. That’s all running is; that’s all anything is. If there’s somewhere you need to be, somewhere you need to get to, or if you need to change or move away from where or what you are, then that’s all it takes. A hundred thousand simple decisions, each one made correctly. You don’t have to think about the distance or the destination or about how far you’ve come or how far you have to go. You just have to think about what’s in front of you and how you’re going to move it behind you.”- Adrian J. Walker

“In the end, I thought, this is how we all end up: running alone through our own wilderness, the landscape of disjointed events that form our lives, with nobody to make sense of it but ourselves. The road is ours, and ours alone.”- Adrian J. Walker

“Nerves are cousin to excitement, and excitement is cousin to gratitude. Pay attention to your nerves: If you feel nervous, it’s a sign that a Very Big Thing is unfolding. Be nervous for how good that thing can be.”- Alexi Pappas

“What distinguishes those of us at the starting line from those of us on the couch is that we learn through running to take what the days gives us, what our body will allow us, and what our will can tolerate.” – John Bingham

More Motivational Quotes for Runners on Race Day

“The probability of achieving the outcome you want increases when you let go of the need to have it.”- Gary Mack

“Interpreting running as an opportunity to discover and become his best self, and to give his best to others, through the relentless pursuit of toughness, or guts—a kind of courage.”- Matt Fitzgerald

“Our running shoes have magic in them. The power to transform a bad day into a good day; frustration into speed; self-doubt into confidence; chocolate cake into muscle.” – Mina Samuels

“I had as many doubts as anyone else. Standing on the starting line, we’re all cowards.” – Alberto Salazar

“I don’t run to add days to my life, I run to add life to my days.” – Ronald Rook

“Your goal is simple: Finish. Experience your first race, don’t race it.” – Bob Glover

“I’ll be happy if running and I can grow old together.” – Haruki Murakami

“I run because long after my footprints fade away, maybe I will have inspired a few to reject the easy path, hit the trails, put one foot in front of the other, and come to the same conclusion I did: I run because it always takes me where I want to go.” – Dean Karnazes

“Don’t fear moving slowly forward…fear standing still.” – Kathleen Harris

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ”Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali

When it’s pouring rain and you’re bowling along through the wet, there’s satisfaction in knowing you’re out there and the others aren’t. – Peter Snell

“To be a consistent winner means preparing not just one day, one month, or even one year — but for a lifetime.” –  Bill Rodgers

“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.” – Jesse Owens

“Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.” – Steve Prefontaine

“Being defeated is often a temporary condition.  Giving up is what makes it permanent.”  – Marilyn vos Savant

“Of course, it was painful, and there were times when, emotionally, I just wanted to chuck it all. But pain seems to be a precondition for this kind of sport. If pain weren’t involved, who in the world would ever go to the trouble of taking part in sports like the triathlon or the marathon, which demand such an investment of time and energy? It’s precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive–or at least a partial sense of it. Your quality of experience is based not on standards such as time or ranking, but on finally awakening to an awareness of the fluidity within action itself.”-  Haruki Murakami

“Running! If there’s any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can’t think of what it might be. In running the mind flees with the body, the mysterious efflorescence of language seems to pulse in the brain, in rhythm with our feet and the swinging of our arms.”-  Joyce Carol Oates

“As long as my heart’s still in it, I’ll keep going. If the passion’s there, why stop? There’ll likely be a point of diminishing returns, a point where my strength will begin to wane. Until then, I’ll just keep plodding onward, putting one foot in front of the other to the best of my ability. Smiling the entire time.”-  Dean Karnazes

“One skill that separates good from almost-good runners is an ability to concentrate for an entire race, whether it is a mile or a marathon.” – Kara Goucher

“ Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.” – Steven Pressfield

“Racing is an escape from society. From symbols of status, and self-perception. A chance to just be. For everyone to just be, with each other.” – Erin Beresini

“Turning pro is a mindset. If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we’re thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don’t show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin’, no matter what.” – Steven Pressfield

“Don’t cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.” – Steven Pressfield

“Tough runs don’t last; tough runners do.” – Anonymous 

“Run the first two-thirds of the race with your head and the last third with your heart.” – Anonymous

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” – Wilma Rudolph

“One skill that separates good from almost-good runners is an ability to concentrate for an entire race, whether it is a mile or a marathon.”- Kara Gouche

“The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” – Auguste Renoir

“Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished.” – Jack Lovelock

“My times become slower and slower, but the experience of the race is unchanged: each race a drama, each race a challenge, each race stretching me in one way or another, and each race telling me more about myself and others.” – George Sheehan

“Running is in my blood—the adrenaline flows before the races, the love/hate of butterflies in your stomach.”- Marcus O’Sullivan

“Running is the greatest metaphor for life because you get out of it what you put into it. ” – Oprah Winfrey

“Mark Twain was not a runner, at least to my knowledge. But I think of this Twain quote nearly every time I go running, once I’ve finally dragged myself out the door: “It’s easier to stay out than get out.” When he penned that line in the late 1800s, there’s zero chance he was referring to my habit of procrastinating when it comes to running. Yet I never cease to marvel at how true it is.” – Brendan Leonard

“The beauty of running is its simplicity; the beauty of runners is that we all have a similar drive to improve. We are either trying to run a personal best, or toeing the line for the first time, which will snowball into a future of trying to run personal bests.” – Deena Kastor

“A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they’re capable of understanding.” – Steve Prefontaine

“You’re running on guts. On fumes. Your muscles twitch. You throw up. You’re delirious. But you keep running because there’s no way out of this hell you’re in because there’s no way you’re not crossing the finish line. It’s a misery that non-runners don’t understand.” – Martine Costello

“The marathon is like a bullfight. There are two ways to kill a bull, for instance. There is the easy way, for one. But all the great matadors end up either dead or mauled because for them killing the bull is not nearly as important as how they kill the bull. They always approach the bull as the greatest risk to themselves, and I admire that. In the marathon, likewise, there are two ways to win.

There’s the easy way if all you care about is winning. You hang back and risk nothing. Then kick and try to nip the leaders at the end. Or you can push, challenge the others, make it an exciting race, risking everything. Maybe you lose, but as for me, I’d rather run a gutsy race, pushing all the way and lose, then run a conservative, easy race only for a win.” – Alberto Salazar

“The marathon is not really about the marathon, it’s about the shared struggle. And it’s not only the marathon but the training.” – Bill Buffum

“You can never be sure. That’s what makes the marathon both fearsome and fascinating. The deeper you go into the unknown, the more uncertain you become. But then you finish. And you wonder later, ‘How did I do that?’ This question compels you to keep making the journey from the usual to the magical.” – Joe Henderson

“I love the fact that not many people can say ‘Oh, I went out and ran 20 miles today.’ I love how much dedication it takes and how much you learn a lot about yourself, your physical and mental limits. There’s just something about it.” – Shalane Flanagan

“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” – Eric Thomas

“The only way to get out of mediocrity is to keep shooting for excellence.” – Eric Thomas

“Desire and imagination have the potential to position a person for greatness” – Eric Thomas

“May you always remember to enjoy the road, especially when it’s a hard one.” – Kobe Bryant

“I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.” – Kobe Bryant

“Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.” – Kobe Bryant

“Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” – Dan Gable

“The easiest thing to do in the world is pull the covers up over your head and go back to sleep.” – Dan Gable

“Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” – Muhammad Ali

“If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it-then I can achieve it.” – Muhammad Ali

“The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.” – Roger Bannister

“However ordinary each of us may seem, we are all in some way special, and can do things that are extraordinary, perhaps until then…even thought impossible.” – Roger Bannister

You got to be hungry for it. You’ve got to put everything you got on it. Everything! Every second.”- Ray Lewis

“You have to be the first one in line. That’s how leaders are born.”- Ray Lewis

“Your dream was given to you. If someone else can’t see it for you, that’s fine, it was given to you and not them. It’s your dream. Hold it. Nourish it. Cultivate it!” – Les Brown

“A lot of people become discouraged too soon. The name of the game is, you’ve got to be relentless.” – Les Brown

“Being relentless means demanding more of yourself than anyone else could ever demand of you, knowing that every time you stop, you can still do more. You must do more.” –  Tim S. Grover

“I’m not telling you to love it. I’m telling you to crave the result so intensely that the work is irrelevant.” – Tim S. Grover

“Watching people run on television was a revelation for me. Never before had I thought of running as a sport. When I ran, I did not think about the conditions in the camp or the hunger in my belly. Running was my therapy, my release, my escape from the world around me.” – Lopez Lomong

“Win from within.” – Usain Bolt

“Nike!” – Pheidppides